Virtuosity

Next Generation DeFi Trading Infrastructure, Web 3 GTM & more w/ Curtis Plot Mak, Chief Business Officer at Bloxroute Labs

I interviewed Curtis Plot Mak, Chief Business Officer at Bloxroute Labs. Bloxroute Labs is a next generation DeFi infrastructure company improving trading speeds and performance with huge applications for retail and enterprise users. Bloxroute has raised $70 million Series B funding including many top investors like SoftBank, Pantera Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Lightspeed, Coinbase Ventures just to name a few. 00:00-00:18: Intro 0:19-1:52: Overview of bloxroute labs & blockchain distribution networks  1:52-5:38: Digging into User Flows: Bloxroute as a Layer Zero protocol, Interaction between memool data & bloxroute’s gateway, 5G network, Algorithmic DeFi trading,  5:38-7:01: Bloxroute & non-competitive DeFi trading: Bloxroute’s value proposition for L1s, L2s, validators, blockbuilders, DEXs, wallets, aggregators, bridges, infrastructure providers, retail traders, ect.  7:02- 10:54: Building Bloxroute’s business function from scratch: BD & Marketing, difficulty in ramping crypto native operators, constantly shipping new products,  10:54-17:33: How & why Bloxroute can ship new product features each month: rapidly developing ecosystem demands, quirks of transaction & MEV flows per layer 1 blockchain like Ethereum, custom building a MEV boost system for BNB smart chain, GTM with new crypto products 17:33 - 22:28: Growth in web 3: Is a data driven sales process possible in web 3? What growth KPIs are worth tracking in crypto? 22:28 - 27:25: What does growth look like in web 3 look like in such a highly a volatile environment? Thinking through short term vs long term planning & prioritization  27:25- 33:23 Bloxroute & web 3 gaming: value proposition for GameFi, prioritization, web 3 cloud gaming & creating utility features using transaction ordering 33:23 - End Comparing the 2017-2018 Bitcoin Crash versus the 2022 FTX & Alameda crash, Crypto BD & investing during the Crypto Winter of 2018, 2023 Crypto Winter versus 2018 Winter: Clearly Embedded Usecases  Disclaimer: All investing and/or business is subject to market risk, including the loss of principal. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results and there is no guarantee any investment or business strategy will achieve its objectives. This podcast is provided for general and educational purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal, tax, securities or investment advice or a recommended course of action in any given situation. All opinions and views constitute our judgments as of the date of production and are subject to change at any time without notice. Similarly, all views expressed by individuals are solely their own and do not reflect those of their employers, clients or affiliates.

Future of Web 3 Interoperability and Gaming w/ Irene Wu, Head of Strategy @ LayerZero

I interviewed Irene Wu, Head of Strategy & ex-Head of Business Development at LayerZero. Irene is an inspiration to me and many others. Irene is one of the youngest people transforming the web 3 industry, and was only an analyst at a venture capital firm prior to joining LayerZero. Irene joined the company close to day one, and lead all BD efforts up until March 2023 when she transitioned to being the Head of Strategy. LayerZero is an interoperability blockchain protocol that has has rapidly transformed the crypto value chain across DeFi, gaming, NFTs, and the metaverse, and has raised 270m in total funding from a rolodex of tier 1 VCs & CVCs like A16Z, Sequoia, PayPal Ventures, and Samsung Next just to name a few. We talk about: 0:00-0:32: Intro 0:32-3:30: Why Irene went from investing in enterprise SaaS to working on blockchain interoperability 3:30-7:14: Irene's analysis of the cross-chain/interoperablity landscape when going all in on Layer Zero on day 1 7:14-10:55: What it was like working on Layer Zero before it became the #1 interoperability protocol 10:55-13:18: Irene's transition from Head of BD to Head of Strategy: Implementing a customer centric approach to business strategy 13:17-18:53: The app-infrastructure adoption cycle in interoperability infrastructure: creating new utility for games building Layer Zero 18:55- End: Thinking through what it looks like to build 10x better experiences for blockchain gaming with Layer Zero Disclaimer: All investing and/or business is subject to market risk, including the loss of principal. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results and there is no guarantee any investment or business strategy will achieve its objectives. This podcast is provided for general and educational purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal, tax, securities or investment advice or a recommended course of action in any given situation. All opinions and views constitute our judgments as of the date of production and are subject to change at any time without notice. Similarly, all views expressed by individuals are solely their own and do not reflect those of their employers, clients or affiliates.

Launching Start-Up Boston with Stephanie Roulic

I interviewed Stephanie Roulic who's currently Head of Operations @ Goldcast (series A SaaS start-up that's raised a total of 38 million) and the founder of Start-Up Boston. In August of 2016, Stephanie co-founded a martech company, nDash, and had absolutely no idea she was doing and didn't have a network within the startup community. After discovering that most events were either too salesly or generic to be useful, Stephanie decided to create her own event that would both build a network and answer the questions she had. About a year later, the first ever Startup Boston Week occurred. This 5-day event brought together 2500 attendees and 125 speakers, over the course of 52 events with legendary speakers like Brian Halligan (Founder & CEO, Hubspot), and Paul Liberman (Founder & COO, DraftKings) just to name a couple. Fast-forward to 2021 and Startup Boston Week has expanded into the organization Startup Boston, an organization on a mission to showcase the New England startup ecosystem. We talk about: 0:00-1:02: Intro 1:02-3:46: What were the early days of start-up Boston like? 3:46-6:14: Building a software company at 26 with no prior work experience 6:15-10:12: Building Start-Up Boston: Cold emailing the CEO of Hubspot, and working 14-16 hours per day 10:12-12:50: Cold Outreach Strategy 12:50-16:32:Balancing Start-Up Boston and dNash: outreach cadence 16:32-19:20: Working 16 hours per day: Maintaining Motivation 19:20-21:51: Hacking Getting Started 21:51 - End: When should you cold email your dream speaker/ podcast guest (e.g CEO of Hubspot)? Disclaimer: Stephanie's views do not necessarily reflect those of Goldcast; she isn't appearing on this podcast in her professional capacity.

Allied Innovation with Matt Tompkins, VP of Space Portfolio @ The Outpost

I interviewed Matt Tompkins, VP of Space Portfolio @ The Outpost (an advisory and technology accelerator firm that helps companies navigate and succeed in the government space). Matt helped develop the US Airforce’s virtual innovation program called SpaceWERX and specifically focused on the international market by building allied innovation programs We talk about: 0:00-0:35: Intro 0:35-3:56: What is allied innovation? What are the key differences between allied innovation and traditional innovation (e.g corporate or government)? 3:56-5:54: Challenges in the innovation process: moving defense companies from inception to commercial readiness 5:54-9:54: Where/how can government innovation be aligned with civilian business? 9:54-14:36: Where/how does it make sense to embrace risk in defense innovation? Challenging the status quo in environments with a very low tolerance for failure 14:37-18:13: Bringing together different risk tolerances in private and public sectors 18:13- End: What does interoperability look like in allied innovation?

Web 3 GTM and Future of Crypto with Faris Oweis, Crypto Coach and ex-Head of Platform @ Struck Crypto

I interviewed Faris Oweis, former Head of Platform @ Struck Crypto and now coaching and angel investing in web 3 founders at Crypto Coach. Example: Faris is Head of Gaming @ Eclipse Laboratories, a next generation rollup that's raised 15 million in pre-seed and seed funding from Tribe Capital, Tabiya, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Soma Capital, Struck Crypto, CoinList, Polychain, Galileo, Polygon Ventures, Accel, Sreeram Kannan and Ryan Fang. Eclipse's public testnet will go live in 2023 in ecosystems including Celestia, Polygon, and EigenLayer. We talk about: 0:00-0:22: Intro 0:22-3:17: What are the myths of web 3 GTM? How the winter crystalized focus + best practices for industry conferences 3:17-5:57: Digging deeper into the effects of the winter: Increased focus on growth/BD, shift in narratives(e.g rise of ZK and consumer crypto), and onus on shipping product more than ever 5:57-10:45: Is there a GTM playbook for web 3? Avoiding generalizations, Web 2 v Web 3 Business Models: Customer vs Community, Variation in Throughput, and role of BD, Marketing and other functions in reaching PMF 10:45-13:58: Are there growth KPIs in web 3 like in web 2 (e.g Twitter, Uber)? Web 2 vs Web 3 Metrics, New product use cases driven by industry tailwinds, and growth metrics/goals by stage 13:58: Why UX is improving in web 3: rise of design focused builders, entrance of modular/interoperable blockchains and a constellation of other factors 17:06-19:25: Current State of Institutional Adoption of Web 3: Cryptocurrency versus Building under the Hood 19:58- End: What does 0-1 GTM looks like for a hypothetical web 3 infrastructure company?